Category — diversions

Happy Halloween! Enjoy this week’s links, and have a safe Halloween!

Costume Ideas

• My personal favorite: Limecat
• Costumes for your doggie: Nacho Libre and a bunch of grapes.
• Are you going as a wookie? Here’s how to make the Chewbacca noise.
• Here’s a cool costume for your favorite zombie wannabe.

Halloween Lists

• Sometimes the scariest movie moments can be found in non-horror movies. Check out the top 25 list here.
• Or, for a sure thing, read Martin Scorsese’s top 11 picks for scariest movies of all time.

Recipes

• Nicole over at Baking Bites has some cool vampire-themed recipes: pancakes, cookies, and cupcakes.
• Over at Not Martha, you can learn how to make a meat hand. Vom alert.
• Double vom alert: brain cake.
• Serve your brain cake with bloody brain shooters.

Goofy Halloween video of the week:

Oops. Looks like I skipped last Friday night’s link dump. That just means more to share tonight!

• Law school exams are only six weeks away. Yikes! It’s also getting harder and harder to crawl out of bed every morning. Feeling a little burned out? Take a one-year creativity sabbatical. Oh, if only I could do just that. Seriously, though, I’d bet there is something to that. I always get my best ideas in the shower when my mind is wandering. In lieu of the sabbatical, here are 33 ways to get and keep yourself motivated.
• Did you  miss out on the Cash for Clunkers program and now you’re in the market for a new vehicle? Check out the Prombron, the world’s baddest SUV. Pay close attention to the disgusting repulsive horrifying unique seat covers. Eww, vom.
• I need another pet about as much as I need the Prombron, but PLEASE LOOK AT HOW CUTE THESE MICRO-PIGS ARE. Waaaaant. Bonus: Ron Weasley has one. Now you know they’re cool.
• Speaking of swine, FitSugar has some really great tips for warding off the H1N1 virus. It’s been making the rounds here for several weeks now. Don’t get it. If you do, stay away from me. Also, here’s a handy chart for determining whether your symptoms are caused by the swine flu or the regular flu.
• Tissue alert: Read the story behind this picture, if you haven’t seen it already. (image credit: Abby Bennethum)
• 

Courtoon of the week:

Most pathetic/hilarious video of the week:

Yes, yes, I’m aware that this post is actually going out on a Saturday. But I thought about posting it on Friday, so that should count for something. Besides, I don’t want to have to change the name of the series just because I’m running a day behind.

So, without further ado, here are this week’s best links from my feed reader.

• Are you at all interested in interior design? If so, you should check out these 40 Excellent Examples of Interior Designs Rendered in 3D Max.
• Design not your thing? What about Hello Kitty?
• Traces of the anti-flu medication Tamiflu are showing up in rivers in Japan, and scientists are worried that this could result in a drug-resistant strain of the flu.
• Speaking of the flu, here’s a recipe for some do-it-yourself hand sanitizer.

Funny cartoon of the week:

Entertaining video of the week:

My poor, neglected Google reader dutifully collects tons and tons of articles and blog posts for me to read, and my new favorite Friday night activity is catching up on some reading that doesn’t have to do with consideration, but-for causation, or Rule 9. Okay, I’m old and I have no social life. Good grief.

Anyway, since I feel like I’ve been totally neglecting this blog lately, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share some of the best items from my feed reader (hence the name “friday night feeding”… get it?) with you in case you’re bored. Like me. Not that I’m complaining. Sometimes boredom is beautiful.

• Dan Brown, of The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons fame, has a new book called The Lost Symbol. I was entertained by The Da Vinci Code much more than Angels & Demons, and I’m sure at some point I’ll get around to reading The Lost Symbol. I’m not a huge fan, though. Here’s a less-than-flattering review of the new book by The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik.
• Along the same lines, here are Dan Brown’s 20 Worst Sentences. Some of them really are pretty bad.
• I want to make this recipe for Spicy, Citrusy Black Beans. Yum.
• I think this guy’s lawsuit for “1,784 billion, trillion dollars” is completely reasonable.
• Are you planning a party and providing alcohol? Wondering how to figure out how much to buy? Lifehacker, perhaps the most useful website EVAH, has a simple formula.

Funny comic of the week:

Funny kitteh video of the week:

For your viewing pleasure. You’re welcome.

hat tip: @no634 from a long time ago

Do you ever stop to think about how different the world is now than when you were a kid? For example, during the summer break, were you one of those kids who left your house sometime in the morning and came home around suppertime, wandering the neighborhood on your bicycle with your friends? I know I was, and I can’t imagine letting my kid do that today. Do you remember when the price of gasoline hit $1 per gallon? Do you remember back before the days of Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, when Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom was the coolest nature show on TV? If all this makes you feel nostalgic, you should check out Wired’s list of 100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About. I’ve posted a few of my favorites below, but you should check out the entire list for a trip down nostalgia lane.

• Rotary dial televisions with no remote control. You know, the ones where the kids were the remote control.
• That there was a time before ‘reality TV.’
• The scream of a modem connecting.
• Using a road atlas to get from A to B.
• Not knowing exactly what all of your friends are doing and thinking at every moment.
• Answering machines.
• Not knowing who was calling you on the phone.
• Spending your entire allowance at the arcade in the mall.

By the way, California pics will be up soon — hopefully this weekend.

The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty — that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men.

George Washington, General Orders, August 23, 1776

In case you ever wondered how Thomas Jefferson was selected to write the Declaration of Independence, wonder no more:

[Read more →]

Today I have discovered yet another reason why I don’t want to live in Washington, D.C. They have no idea who’s hot and who’s not.
[Read more →]

A heartwarming story about a little boy and his desire to be in the Guinness Book of World Records. [Read more →]